Under Construction!

You'll notice some changes around here-- I have decided to change my blog up some!

For the next few days, the layout is going to be tinkered with here and there. Hopefully it'll be a lot sleeker.

Thank you for being patient everyone!

Sexy Disgusting Perverse Angelic (Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt Review)

WARNING

The following blog post is extremely sexy in nature. Anyone who reads it shall surely be under my spell and will be forced to get a huge naked dog pile with me. Should you feel hot under the collar, DO NOT turn on Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. This will only make it worse. Reader discretion advised.

I could totally get behind this idea of heaven.

How the hell do you even start on an anime like this? Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is without a doubt one of the most memorable and clearly the most insane shows I have EVER seen. "Two angel sisters attempt to get to Heaven by destroying ghosts and demons with the help of a preacher."  Seems like an entirely innocent premise, right? I can only imagine someone in the studio took a hit of something, went silent for a good five minutes, and said, "Oh my god... you know what? No one's ever done? An angel series about the disgusting parts of human life. And I don't mean any of that psychological nonsense. I mean, like, about nose picking, shit, and all that stuff."

"Dude, you're high," the other writers will say. "No way that can be done."

"You're saying it can't be done," the stone writer repeated, more to himself than to anyone else.

"No way!" The others said, laughing.

"...."

this is the first time i've ever made a meme pic
and i am entirely ashamed of myself

So for whatever the reason, we ended up with the mess that is Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. Because it doesn't have a main plot to tie the episodes together in a chronological order, and because it isn't serious, it's hard to review it in the way that I normally do. But let's see if I can tackle it anyways.

Overall Plot
Like I said before, because there isn't a main plot to tie them together in a chronological order, as far as plot goes, you have to take it for what it's worth episode to episode. For the most part, the series centers around Panty and Stocking, two angel sisters who are for some unexplained reason on Earth instead of in Heaven. They must destroy ghosts that seek to create chaos in Daten City, and every time a ghost is destroyed, it'll drop a coin called a "Heaven." Collecting these Heavens will let them actually go back to the real Heaven. However, Panty and Stocking are not your typical angels.

Panty, the older angel, is a blonde bombshell. As depicted in the opening, she's always got sex and boys on the brain-- if she can't fuck it, she's gonna ignore it. Stocking, the little sister is obsessed with a different cardinal sin, gluttony. She eats sugary things all day, never exercises, and never cares. She's pretty gothic for an angel. Somehow, humanity's faith rests in the hands of these two.

The unlikely hero trope isn't new by any means, but I've never seen the extent this show takes. I've never seen an actual episode about the pleasures of nose picking and all the stuff this takes on. It's revolting, but it's also weird and humorous at the same time. It's hard to pin down. It's original in its implementation, that's for sure.

Grade: A
For doing something old in a new way. Completely unforgettable.

Art
Although PaSwG is an anime, the art style is pretty much influenced by western art. In fact, I thought it was an English show until I saw the subtitled version. In fact, the story itself could arguably take place in America. The art style itself seems ripped from Powerpuff Girls, which is pretty cool for me since I've always loved that --




You know what? I'm sorry. I can't take this anime seriously. That's not a bad thing, because it's not supposed to be taken seriously. But oh my god, I can't. I just can't. Why review it? It's a masterpiece of fucked up perversion. It doesn't need to make sense.

Just watch it yourself and tell me what you think.

My overall grade? I just told you, I can't grade it.

Okay. I give it a #.

Doesn't make sense? Well fuck you it doesn't need to. See you next time.

Great Revival, Jena von Karma.

Okay, enough tooting my own horn. While last time I was saying I was going to try to come back, recent events have heralded my definite return. I won't go into details into my reasons, but my current work became a rather toxic environment (sexual harassment and a stalker situation to summarize it). So I get to fall back onto one of my favorite jobs of all time: blogging.

I mentioned before that I would get into reviewing Walking Dead, but given the fact that the next volume is coming out soon, I'm going to wait to specifically review that one. There are fortunately a number of anime series I have watched (that are fairly new) so I'm going to focus this week on those. Expect reviews of Eden of the East, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, and others. I also intend to do my first webcomic reviews, as well as talk a little bit more about my visual novel, Lotus Burst, currently in production.

I will be back tomorrow with my first review in a long time. But to hold you off for now, here are a few CG images/promotional works from Lotus Burst.

Artwork by http://marynna-chan.deviantart.com/
Please like us at http://www.facebook.com/lotus.burst

I... I am alive!

I'm so very, very sorry for letting this little blog of mine fall into despair... but you see, I have some news!

First up, I got a job back in July. I'm just a simple barista at a cafe, but it brings in some money and eats up a fair amount of time! It's in a bookstore so I get to read plenty of free comics and manga now, and meeting many other nerds... so I am slowly slipping further and further into my nerd circle. orz help me

Next up, remember that visual novel I mentioned working on? Weeeeelll.... It's sort of full-speed ahead. I'll dedicate more posts to it in the future, so I'll leave it short here. Feel free to visit Facebook.com/lotus.burst to check it out though!

Then throw in tiny things like school, additional projects, and all that jazz, and you get one very tired blogger with little time for blogging! I shall try changing that, but I can't promise anything... But god help me, I'll try!

I'm going to try reviewing a western comic book for once: WALKING DEAD. Expect it next time!

30DAPC: Day 3

Day 3
Your anime crush

...

Well that's a creepy subject. But sadly, I can already think of a few that might fit into this category.

The "Cuteness"

"I can have ice cream, or put a stop to that serial killer. Hmmm...."

In the grand Kira vs L debate, I always sided with L, disagreeing with Kira on every level even before L's character was fully introduced. Considering the fact that (at least from what I can remember) he doesn't actually work for the police, you have to imagine that L's involvement in the Kira case was mostly a gut call on his part, so I always liked that. Beyond that, he was pretty smart and used Kira's own cockiness against him, and I've always liked it when cocky people were put in their place. So before L was introduced, I already liked him on an intellectual level.

And then he was introduced.

My god, is this man absolutely adorable. He's brilliant but a bit socially awkward, addicted to sweets, and although he works in a very grim field, he has a side of him that is adorably innocent. He's one of the few characters that you can see as an adorable chibi and not go, "Holy shit that is so wrong don't do that."

So my "cute crush" would have to be L.

The Stylish Devil

If you looked this good, your sister want would fuck you too.

And here's the man that I wish I didn't like: Akio Ohtori from Revolutionary Girl Utena. I really hate that I like this character. Believe me, I do. He's a monster. He has sex with every man, woman, child, monkey, car, and heavenly being in the entire series. But oh god. Does he have a style about him.

I can't really explain it. He's bad, he knows he's bad, and he's unapologetic. Yet as the other various characters are drawn to him, I found myself getting drawn to him to. Maybe all women do want jerks. I'm a horrible person. I'm a weak person. But I had a dream about him once. I don't know why, I don't usually have dreams about fictional characters. I don't have that sort of problem that makes me think he's real! But... I still had a dream about him. Twice. And oh. Was it a special dream. It was so special, when that part of the dream passed, my dream self SUDDENLY BECAME AWARE IT WAS A DREAM IN AN ATTEMPT TO LUCID DREAM HER WAY BACK TO HIM.

i need to move on before i reveal anything more embarassing

That Crazy Bitch

Eeeellllll Kabong!

There's that one character that's just so weird, energetic, that you can't help but fall in love with them. So it's no surprise that Haruko Haruhara from FLCL would round out my choices of crushes. It's both easy and hard to say what the appeal to her is. If someone were to meet her in real life, they'd be very, very scared. But in this setting she's absolutely perfect. Not to mention the fanservice... oh, the fanservice. Even when I watched this delightfully insane character when I was 12 (when it first started to air in the US), I knew there was something truly special about her. She, without a doubt, is one of those classic favorites for any anime fan.


(Just a note, yes, it's been a while since my last post, and I should be around day 10. However I've been pretty busy with summer college courses and I hate to leave any gaps... so yeah, gonna continue this way. Maybe I'll do a few double posts. I don't know. Oh well!)

See you later.

30DAPC: Day 2

Day 2
Your Favorite Anime So Far


There is no doubt about this choice.

The favorite one I keep returning to is a little series called Revolutionary Girl Utena. If surrealism were an anime, this would be it. At first the story is gradual and subtle, so if you're looking for an action packed series this probably isn't the pick for you. What is thrilling about it is witnessing the tiny revolution within each character as they tackle their defining moments of adolescence. You have to be willing to sit down and really pay attention to every detail in order to fully appreciate the story, especially when the last six episodes roll around and you begin to realize that the entire story itself is a metaphor for the way a young blossoming teenager views the world as fairy tale princes die and "real life" comes swooping in. Like in real life, the characters are forced to either move on to reality and accept real life for all its disgusting let downs-- such as heart break, neglect, rape, lacking the power to save those closest to you, and the awareness that one's innocence is truly dead-- or hide away from the truth, preserving your innocence at the cost of sacrificing your ability to function as a human being-- burying yourself in your psyche's coffin. Neither are an optimistic outlook on life.

The other students try to go through drastic means to rectify this, as they see the loss of innocence the loss of everything important to them, as most immature children do. One by one they all end up falling specifically because of the one thing they're fighting for, and even when they turn the tables and try to fight their immature wants and needs, they fail again. But despite this personal break down, the student council remains strong and unwavering; because they fail on an individual level, they must strive on a community level.

Utena, on the other hand, is different; she doesn't fight immaturity or maturity, but rather embraces both sides of her psyche, just like she embraces her masculinity and femininity. She is both accepting and honest with herself in ways the other characters haven't seen-- they all have something they're ashamed of, and either try to change the way the rules work so it doesn't become a problem, or try to deny that such an inadequacy exists. But in Utena's case, she isn't willing to change the world or deny a part of herself. Her desire to strike up a middle path where one doesn't have to sacrifice themselves or sacrifice the world to exist peacefully is what makes her so revolutionary, as the other characters begin to see the selfishness of both sides. But as the story shows, the willingness to do great good to not sacrifice one's soul comes at an even greater cost-- one that has drastic consequences for both Utena and Anthy. But as another anime has said, "Perhaps the lack of a choice is a choice in and of itself, one that has its own consequences. But you could say it is the ideal answer."



Or maybe I'm reading too much into it and it really only is about gay sex. After all, it's in a world where hate manifests itself in a physical form. (And we all know that swords are really just really angry penises)

The girls get laid, too!

i obviously have some problems